Widow Ministry....in our driveway

We are now in two different farmer's markets, but it is slow going.  I suppose it takes time with every new venture and you have to develop relationships.  I tell my kids about being patient, but I am the one who is now impatient.  Little by little, I keep repeating to myself.

Meanwhile the fly pestilence is out in full force on the farm.  I should say, the flies have moved from the outdoors into our home.  They love it in here!  I enjoy being hospitable, but this is too much. The weather, mixed with farm living, has bred the perfect storm.  I was losing my marbles about it yesterday.  But it was as if God knew as I came to this short verse.  I read in Judges when God was speaking to Gideon, he said, "Peace be to you.  Do not fear.  You will not die."  I repeated that to myself multiple time during the day as I encountered flies throughout the house.   I will not die.  Yes, flies are irritating and they do feel sometimes like I'm in Egypt experiencing one of the plagues, but I won't die.  So, as with all things, I just try to keep perspective.  But I will be going at it full force today with bug spray.  I've declared war.

Last week, we had the strangest encounter on the farm.  We were all outside.  The kids were playing basketball in the driveway, my husband was also outside.  It was a beautiful warm evening.  A car drove by and the kids waved for some reason, as a lot of people wave in the country to anyone driving by.  My husband also waved (he noticed the driver had a sweet car...maybe that's why?).  Suddenly the car turns around and an older woman and her pug dog get out and walk on to the driveway.  Whenever I see a stranger in our driveway for whatever reason, I immediately run out as I always assume it's because they saw a horse out or a missing dog or some other animal.  I just assumed it was the same in this case.

At first I thought she was having some strange confusing experience and that maybe she was lost and needed our help as she was kind of rambling about being at a festival, not being able to find parking and she'd lost her friends and ......yikes....I didn't know what she was talking about.  Finally, I kind of stopped her and just came right out and asked her, "What made you stop here tonight?" in as kind a way as I could.  She had been at a festival nearby, she had lost her friends, so she'd turned back towards home but felt her little dog needed a walk and some fresh air because he'd been cooped up in her car for so long.  When she saw us wave to her twice, she figured, this must be a friendly place.  I'll stop here!  So that's when she popped out of her car with her dog and I found her on our driveway.

Still, this was so strange.  Meanwhile, one by one, one of the kids would come over or walk out of the house, or drive in the driveway after picking up another sibling....so many kids!  I would keep introducing them one after another and then, I can't remember how, but somehow it came up that we homeschooled.  That's when she asked, "Do you have Christian values?"  "Oh yes," I said, "We're Christians for sure!'  "Praise God!  I'm a Christian, too!"  She was so excited.  She suddenly felt so sure that God had led her to our place because she couldn't explain why she had stopped at our place of all places.

The funnier part was as we talked she explained where she was originally from, some small town on the border of Alberta and Saskatchewan.  "Lloydminster?" I asked.  Her eyes nearly popped out of her head. "YES!  How do you know about Lloydminster?!"  "That's where my dad was born and raised!"  She couldn't believe it as she was, too.  We figure they must know some of the same people as they are the exact same age and from the exact small farming community.

We must have stood on our driveway for 30 minutes just talking about the Lord, His goodness, my kids, where we go to church, her kids, where she lives now, how she came to be there, how her husband died, on and on.....by the end of the time, her dog had had a great time being walked all over the place by kids and we were new best friends.  When she met my oldest boy going off to Africa, she was so excited as she had a science background (went to the same university as my dad, probably the same time, too).  She wanted to know all about his trip.  In fact, now she's even coming to his fundraiser in a couple of weeks!  She can't wait! 

It must be hard to be a widow.  She must be lonely!  It was such a thrill to meet her.  She was truly such a lovely woman.  My kids really took to her, too, as she was just like my mom.  I couldn't have planned such an unusual evening.  If I could, I would place a sign over our house, "Widows and orphans feel free to stop in here!"  This is what I long to do, to minister to those in need, but I don't know how to when life is so full with my own household.  My husband reminds me I am in ministry, to those under my own roof, so what does God do?  He brings them literally to me, in a way I can handle and in a way that my family can get involved as well.  I get a chance to literally meet a widow that God literally brought to our door.  It was almost as if there was a sign over our house - stop here!  When she left to go home after our extended driveway visit, we hugged!  We felt like kindred spirits in that very short time.  Only the Lord can do that.  We exchanged emails and she's already responded that she's coming to our place in a couple of weeks.  She can't wait and neither can we! 

There are actually quite a few widows and widowers in our life that we've met since moving here.  A couple of neighbours have lost their wives and we have a few from our old church as well.  These older people love the kids and my kids really love them.  I enjoy speaking with them so much and feel their loneliness whenever I see them.  I just love that in a small way God can use me and our family out in the middle of nowhere.  It's easy to get caught up in serving just my immediate family, but God doesn't want that.  There's always room for more people in our lives. Who can limit the number of friendships they have, that God wants to give them?  This one has to to be one of the more unique ways we've met a new friend.  I can only say it was a divine appointment.